How the Leopard got his Spots [May 11 2005] Publication history First published in the Ladies� Home Journal, October 1901, illustrated by Frank Verbeck. Collected in Just So Stories (1902), illustrated by the author and followed by the poem �I am the most wise Baviaan�. The story The Leopard used to live on the sandy-coloured High Veldt. He too was sandy-coloured, and so was hard for prey animals like Giraffe and Zebra to see when he lay in wait for them. The Ethiopian lived there too and was similarly coloured. He, with his bow and arrows, used to hunt with the Leopard. Then the prey animals left the High Veldt to live in a forest and grew blotches, stripes and other forms of camouflage. The Leopard and the Ethiopian were hungry and consulted Baviaan, the wise baboon, who said the prey animals had �gone into other spots� and advised them to do the same. So they went searching and came to the forest. They could smell Giraffe and Zebra there but could not see them. When night came, they managed to catch Giraffe and Zebra by sound and scent.

Asked why they looked so different, the two prey animals demonstrated how easily they could disappear against the forest background. So the Ethiopian changed his skin to black, and marked the Leopard�s coat with his bunched black fingertips. Then they too could hide. They lived happily ever after, and will never change their colouring again. Background notes The manuscript of the story is in the volume Just So Stories in the British Library. The following poem is six lines longer there and includes details of the grounds at Bateman�s, the Sussex estate bought by the Kiplings in 1902. According to Carrington�s notes from Mrs Kipling�s diaries, the story was written on 30 March 1901. Roger Lancelyn Green (Kipling and the Children, p. 171) suggested that an oral version might date back as far as 1898, the first year when the Kiplings took their children for a winter holiday in South Africa. He read the poem as spoken by their eldest child Josephine, but the manuscript does not bear this out, unless Kipling was imagining how she might have reacted to life at Bateman�s. She died three years before the family moved there.

Later in Just So Stories, the last verse of the poem �Merrow Down� expresses his grief for her. Kipling�s American publisher and close friend F.N. Doubleday wrote in his memoirs [F.N. Doubleday, The Memoirs of a Publisher, written for his family in the late 1920s. Published by Doubleday and Co., Inc., New York 1972]: When [Doubleday�s son] Nelson was about seven or eight years old, Mr. Kipling was writing a series of Just So Stories � These tales were published in St Nicholas and were vastly interesting to Nelson. He conceived the idea that if Mr. Kipling would write some more animal stories, the titles of which he suggested, they might be made into a book, and asked if I would mind his writing to Mr. Kipling on the subject.

I said no, whereupon he inquired if I would lend him a five-cent stamp, which he promised to repay, and wrote a long letter in his own fist, addressed to �Rudyard Kipling, Rotting Dean,� giving a list of suggestions for new stories about different animals, and adding that if he wrote these stories and they were any good, his father, he was sure, would get them put in book form and give him (Nelson) a royalty of a cent a copy. The Just So Stories finally came out, and Nelson applied for a contract for his cent-a-copy share. This has gone on for twenty or more years, and how much he has received I have no idea, but it must certainly be several thousand dollars. [pp. 182-3]. Nelson Doubleday would confirm this story in the Saturday Review of Literature (23 Oct.1948), claiming to have suggested as subjects �how the leopard got his spots, how the elephant got his trunk, about the crocodile and so on.� [Quoted, Kipling Journal 89, April 1949, p.

10.] Critical Opinion Of the characters in the story, Rosalind Meyer wrote [�But is it Art?: an Appreciation of Just So Stories,� Kipling Journal 232, December 1984]: The Leopard and the Ethiopian are cronies, but it is the Ethiopian who is quicker to grasp Baviaan�s advice: for the good reason that he is a grown-up... [p. 13]. Of Kipling�s descriptions, she said: The game of conscious appraisal is taken a stage further in the story of the Leopard, where various methods of description are exemplified. The mock-awkwardness of �the �sclusively greyish-yellowish-reddish High Veldt� nevertheless does not inhibit an expression of vast featureless horizons; and is neatly contrasted, in a string of adjectives so often resorted to by young writers, in the evocative description of: A great, high, tall forest full of tree trunks all �sclusively speckled and sprottled and spottled, dotted and splashed and slashed and hatched and cross-hatched with shadows.

But more to the point is the crescendo of similes which in this tale begins to impress itself on the mind: they ought to show up in this dark place like ripe bananas in a smoke-house � You show up in this dark place like a bar of soap in a coal-scuttle � � you show up in this dark place like a mustard-plaster on a sack of coals. Finally, the series modulates from the grotesque into the pleasing, a natural object in a natural setting: � if you insist on looking like a sunflower against a tarred fence. Since the first three are, as it were, asterisked for attention with �this dark place� and, once interest is gained, the last is allowed to make its own point, it is difficult not to believe that a lesson is being inculcated, with whatever charming playfulness [p. 25].

[L.L.] How the Leopard Got His Spots | Storynory How the Leopard Got His Spots Download 00:00 / 00:00 The Just So Stories by Kipling (who also wrote the Jungle Book) tell us so many interesting things – and in this story we learn how the Leopard got his spots – and why a Leopard can never change his spots. (We have slightly adapted the story at the end to fit in with modern mores). Read by Natasha HOW THE LEOPARD GOT HIS SPOTS IN the days when everybody started fair, Best Beloved, the Leopard lived in a place called the High Veldt. ‘Member it wasn’t the Low Veldt, or the Bush Veldt, or the Sour Veldt, but the ‘sclusively bare, hot, shiny High Veldt, where there was sand and sandy-coloured rock and ‘sclusively tufts of sandy-yellowish grass.

The Giraffe and the Zebra and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Hartebeest lived there; and they were ‘sclusively sandy-yellow-brownish all over; but the Leopard, he was the ‘sclusivest sandiest-yellowish-brownest of them all—a greyish-yellowish catty-shaped kind of beast, and he matched the ‘sclusively yellowish-greyish-brownish colour of the High Veldt to one hair. This was very bad for the Giraffe and the Zebra and the rest of them; for he would lie down by a ‘sclusively yellowish-greyish-brownish stone or clump of grass, and when the Giraffe or the Zebra or the Eland or the Koodoo or the Bush-Buck or the Bonte-Buck came by he would surprise them out of their jumpsome lives. He would indeed!

And, also, there was an Ethiopian with bows and arrows (a ‘sclusively greyish-brownish-yellowish man he was then), who lived on the High Veldt with the Leopard; and the two used to hunt together—the Ethiopian with his bows and arrows, and the Leopard ‘sclusively with his teeth and claws—till the Giraffe and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Quagga and all the rest of them didn’t know which way to jump, Best Beloved. They didn’t indeed! After a long time—things lived for ever so long in those days—they learned to avoid anything that looked like a Leopard or an Ethiopian; and bit by bit—the Giraffe began it, because his legs were the longest—they went away from the High Veldt.

They scuttled for days and days and days till they came to a great forest, ‘sclusively full of trees and bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy-blatchy shadows, and there they hid: and after another long time, what with standing half in the shade and half out of it, and what with the slippery-slidy shadows of the trees falling on them, the Giraffe grew blotchy, and the Zebra grew stripy, and the Eland and the Koodoo grew darker, with little wavy grey lines on their backs like bark on a tree trunk; and so, though you could hear them and smell them, you could very seldom see them, and then only when you knew precisely where to look. They had a beautiful time in the ‘sclusively speckly-spickly shadows of the forest, while the Leopard and the Ethiopian ran about over the ‘sclusively greyish-yellowish-reddish High Veldt outside, wondering where all their breakfasts and their dinners and their teas had gone.

At last they were so hungry that they ate rats and beetles and rock-rabbits, the Leopard and the Ethiopian, and then they had the Big Tummy-ache, both together; and then they met Baviaan—the dog-headed, barking Baboon, who is Quite the Wisest Animal in All South Africa. Said Leopard to Baviaan (and it was a very hot day), ‘Where has all the game gone?’ And Baviaan winked. He knew. Said the Ethiopian to Baviaan, ‘Can you tell me the present habitat of the aboriginal Fauna?’ (That meant just the same thing, but the Ethiopian always used long words. He was a grown-up.) And Baviaan winked. He knew.

Then said Baviaan, ‘The game has gone into other spots; and my advice to you, Leopard, is to go into other spots as soon as you can.’ And the Ethiopian said, ‘That is all very fine, but I wish to know whither the aboriginal Fauna has migrated.’ Then said Baviaan, ‘The aboriginal Fauna has joined the aboriginal Flora because it was high time for a change; and my advice to you, Ethiopian, is to change as soon as you can.’ That puzzled the Leopard and the Ethiopian, but they set off to look for the aboriginal Flora, and presently, after ever so many days, they saw a great, high, tall forest full of tree trunks all ‘sclusively speckled and sprottled and spottled, dotted and splashed and slashed and hatched and cross-hatched with shadows. (Say that quickly aloud, and you will see how very shadowy the forest must have been.) ‘What is this,’ said the Leopard, ‘that is so ‘sclusively dark, and yet so full of little pieces of light?’ ‘I don’t know, said the Ethiopian, ‘but it ought to be the aboriginal Flora.

I can smell Giraffe, and I can hear Giraffe, but I can’t see Giraffe.’ ‘That’s curious,’ said the Leopard. ‘I suppose it is because we have just come in out of the sunshine. I can smell Zebra, and I can hear Zebra, but I can’t see Zebra.’ ‘Wait a bit, said the Ethiopian. ‘It’s a long time since we’ve hunted ’em. Perhaps we’ve forgotten what they were like.’ ‘Fiddle!’ said the Leopard. ‘I remember them perfectly on the High Veldt, especially their marrow-bones. Giraffe is about seventeen feet high, of a ‘sclusively fulvous golden-yellow from head to heel; and Zebra is about four and a half feet high, of a’sclusively grey-fawn colour from head to heel.’ ‘Umm, said the Ethiopian, looking into the speckly-spickly shadows of the aboriginal Flora-forest. ‘Then they ought to show up in this dark place like ripe bananas in a smokehouse.’ But they didn’t. The Leopard and the Ethiopian hunted all day; and though they could smell them and hear them, they never saw one of them.

‘For goodness’ sake,’ said the Leopard at tea-time, ‘let us wait till it gets dark. This daylight hunting is a perfect scandal.’ So they waited till dark, and then the Leopard heard something breathing sniffily in the starlight that fell all stripy through the branches, and he jumped at the noise, and it smelt like Zebra, and it felt like Zebra, and when he knocked it down it kicked like Zebra, but he couldn’t see it. So he said, ‘Be quiet, O you person without any form. I am going to sit on your head till morning, because there is something about you that I don’t understand.’ Presently he heard a grunt and a crash and a scramble, and the Ethiopian called out, ‘I’ve caught a thing that I can’t see. It smells like Giraffe, and it kicks like Giraffe, but it hasn’t any form.’ ‘Don’t you trust it,’ said the Leopard. ‘Sit on its head till the morning—same as me.

They haven’t any form—any of ’em.’ So they sat down on them hard till bright morning-time, and then Leopard said, ‘What have you at your end of the table, Brother?’ The Ethiopian scratched his head and said, ‘It ought to be ‘sclusively a rich fulvous orange-tawny from head to heel, and it ought to be Giraffe; but it is covered all over with chestnut blotches. What have you at your end of the table, Brother?’ And the Leopard scratched his head and said, ‘It ought to be ‘sclusively a delicate greyish-fawn, and it ought to be Zebra; but it is covered all over with black and purple stripes. What in the world have you been doing to yourself, Zebra? Don’t you know that if you were on the High Veldt I could see you ten miles off? You haven’t any form.’ ‘Yes,’ said the Zebra, ‘but this isn’t the High Veldt. Can’t you see?’ ‘I can now,’ said the Leopard. ‘But I couldn’t all yesterday. How is it done?’ ‘Let us up,’ said the Zebra, ‘and we will show you.

They let the Zebra and the Giraffe get up; and Zebra moved away to some little thorn-bushes where the sunlight fell all stripy, and Giraffe moved off to some tallish trees where the shadows fell all blotchy. ‘Now watch,’ said the Zebra and the Giraffe. ‘This is the way it’s done. One—two—three! And where’s your breakfast?’ Leopard stared, and Ethiopian stared, but all they could see were stripy shadows and blotched shadows in the forest, but never a sign of Zebra and Giraffe. They had just walked off and hidden themselves in the shadowy forest. ‘Hi! Hi!’ said the Ethiopian. ‘That’s a trick worth learning. Take a lesson by it, Leopard. You show up in this dark place like a bar of soap in a coal-scuttle.’ ‘Ho! Ho!’ said the Leopard. ‘Would it surprise you very much to know that you show up in this dark place like a mustard-plaster on a sack of coals?’ ‘Well, calling names won’t catch dinner, said the Ethiopian. ‘The long and the little of it is that we don’t match our backgrounds.

I’m going to take Baviaan’s advice. He told me I ought to change; and as I’ve nothing to change except my skin I’m going to change that.’ ‘What to?’ said the Leopard, tremendously excited. ‘To a nice working blackish-brownish colour, with a little purple in it, and touches of slaty-blue. It will be the very thing for hiding in hollows and behind trees.’ So he changed his skin then and there, and the Leopard was more excited than ever; he had never seen a man change his skin before. ‘But what about me?’ he said, when the Ethiopian had worked his last little finger into his fine new black skin. ‘You take Baviaan’s advice too. He told you to go into spots.’ ‘So I did,’ said the Leopard. I went into other spots as fast as I could. I went into this spot with you, and a lot of good it has done me.’ ‘Oh,’ said the Ethiopian, ‘Baviaan didn’t mean spots in South Africa. He meant spots on your skin.’ ‘What’s the use of that?’ said the Leopard. ‘Think of Giraffe,’ said the Ethiopian.

‘Or if you prefer stripes, think of Zebra. They find their spots and stripes give them per-feet satisfaction.’ ‘Umm,’ said the Leopard. ‘I wouldn’t look like Zebra—not for ever so.’ ‘Well, make up your mind,’ said the Ethiopian, ‘because I’d hate to go hunting without you, but I must if you insist on looking like a sun-flower against a tarred fence.’ ‘I’ll take spots, then,’ said the Leopard; ‘but don’t make ’em too vulgar-big. I wouldn’t look like Giraffe—not for ever so.’ ‘I’ll make ’em with the tips of my fingers,’ said the Ethiopian. ‘There’s plenty of black left on my skin still. Stand over!’ Then the Ethiopian put his five fingers close together (there was plenty of black left on his new skin still) and pressed them all over the Leopard, and wherever the five fingers touched they left five little black marks, all close together. You can see them on any Leopard’s skin you like, Best Beloved.

Sometimes the fingers slipped and the marks got a little blurred; but if you look closely at any Leopard now you will see that there are always five spots—off five fat black finger-tips. ‘Now you are a beauty!’ said the Ethiopian. ‘You can lie out on the bare ground and look like a heap of pebbles. You can lie out on the naked rocks and look like a piece of pudding-stone. You can lie out on a leafy branch and look like sunshine sifting through the leaves; and you can lie right across the centre of a path and look like nothing in particular. Think of that and purr!’ So they went away and lived happily ever afterward, Best Beloved. That is all. Oh, now and then you will hear grown-ups say, ‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots?’ I don’t think even grown-ups would keep on saying such a silly thing if the Leopard and the Ethiopian hadn’t done it once—do you? But they will never do it again, Best Beloved. They are quite contented as they are.

I AM the Most Wise Baviaan, saying in most wise tones, ‘Let us melt into the landscape—just us two by our lones.’ People have come—in a carriage—calling. But Mummy is there…. Yes, I can go if you take me—Nurse says she don’t care. Let’s go up to the pig-sties and sit on the farmyard rails! Let’s say things to the bunnies, and watch ’em skitter their tails! Let’s—oh, anything, daddy, so long as it’s you and me, And going truly exploring, and not being in till tea! Here’s your boots (I’ve brought ’em), and here’s your cap and stick, And here’s your pipe and tobacco. Oh, come along out of it—quick. BERTIE COMMANDS A NEW BERTIE STORY. vivan — July 23, 2012 First one wow!!!!!!! Audrey132665 — July 23, 2012 The story was great.

But, you have been putting storys inbetween the Secercet Garden chapters and was wondering if you could do a Bertie story about when he drives a train.The idea was mentioned in Bertie’s Lost Chistmas and I was waiting for it to come out and it still hasn’t. So if you could please do it I would be ever so happy. 🙂 Saddy — July 24, 2012 Dear Saddy, thanks for reminder, I will work on it. Bertie — July 24, 2012 she definitely say scucivly so many time, doesn’t she bertie? mckayla — July 25, 2012 i found it hade rather bad lagauge and keeped repeating things but over all it hade its points 5 out of 10 sammy — July 25, 2012 I want to be have spots like leopard….. GRRRR…. But I like this Story. It is very wonderful… Bye Marine — July 26, 2012 nice me — February 2, 2016 It’s a super story beautifully read.

I could almost feel myself on the high veldt and in the jungle. I look forward to more. teresa — July 26, 2012 Really cool and interesting!!! I loved it! Marcie Jones — October 29, 2015 Lá francé e?t limèas oooooooh it’s very very nice and funny I liked it Omar — July 28, 2012 all rite the coments are stubed Anonymous — July 29, 2012 this story is a good one . love it!!!!! Thank you, from this grown-up! Manda — August 8, 2012 this story is very interesting. the characters act very good.

chelsea — August 14, 2012 dear readers this story has a lot of animals which are coming extinct.this comment is really about the leopard.it is the most extinct annimal.i really liked this book.you learn a lot from this book.this book helps you alot for school as well .i really enjoyed reading it.who wrote this book is very intelligent.this book is the greatest .this book was awsome.i will read it all the time.i will never forget this book.i can dream about it aswell.

thanks a lot i hated it one direction — January 23, 2013 i kind of liked it it relates to my brothers story that he rote.u know what i did like it and all the people who didn’t like this book where more than likley being to lazzy to read the book angel — January 23, 2013 heather it was a boring book juan — January 23, 2013 im not lazy i just did not like it bryce — January 30, 2013 hey i love this story its so touching thank you mrs howes jj — February 8, 2013 I love all the storys but could you try to make them a little bit more exiting?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????!

Or you could add an action section!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! {BY (: !!! } rita — March 7, 2013 why would they do that if the point of the stories is to stick to what the author wrote. P.S people use them for home work and research so they have to be wat the origonal author wote laraiya — June 21, 2015 Hi. I liked this story very much, but I have to admit it gets duller with these “Best Beloved” things. Couldn’t you leave them out? No offence. All the best from i like the story it sounds awesome dameion — April 13, 2016 I liked the story I think everyone should read it.

Random — April 13, 2016 this was a good book zach — May 17, 2016 I LIKED IT IT WAS AWESOME AND COOL MY FAVORITE PART IS WHEN THEY PUT BLACK SPOTS ON THE LEPORED LACI — April 13, 2016 This book can be good in some parts, but in most it is so slow moving to understand what it mean, and the audio is a good option. Cheers Jake — June 8, 2016 There’s a Mowgli tale of a same kind in The Second Jungle Book titled ‘How Fear Came’ In which Hathi(an elephant,i.e., master of the jungle) narrates to all animals and Mowgli the story of how the first tiger got stripes can u please publish it in three parts (as it is too long) P.S. plz reply me what u think Smart Girl — July 7, 2016 I am just like, sweet story bro anonymous — September 20, 2016 Birtie, This book still, just as it was 40 years ago when I first read it.

Twists and turns and plays with words, Spotless. Martin — October 26, 2016 loved it, but if you could add more exitement I would give you 10 stars not 9!!!!don’t know how he switched his skin. noah — November 1, 2016 Really great, although I didn’t like the “‘sclusively” and “‘member” etc. 3/5 points 🙂 "How the Leopard Got His Spots" | Just So Stories | Rudyard Kipling | Lit2Go ETC "How the Leopard Got His Spots" Additional Information Source: Kipling, Rudyard. Just So Stories. Readability: Chicago Kipling, R. (0). "How the Leopard Got His Spots". Just So Stories (Lit2Go Edition). Retrieved December 30, 2016, from Kipling, Rudyard. ""How the Leopard Got His Spots"." Just So Stories. Lit2Go Edition. 0. Web. < December 30, 2016.

Rudyard Kipling, ""How the Leopard Got His Spots"," Just So Stories, Lit2Go Edition, (0), accessed December 30, 2016, Next The embedded audio player requires a modern internet browser. You should visit Browse Happy and update your internet browser today! IN the days when everybody started fair, Best Beloved, the Leopard lived in a place called the High Veldt. ‘Member it wasn’t the Low Veldt, or the Bush Veldt, or the Sour Veldt, but the ‘sclusively bare, hot, shiny High Veldt, where there was sand and sandy-coloured rock and ‘sclusively tufts of sandy- yellowish grass. The Giraffe and the Zebra and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Hartebeest lived there; and they were ‘sclusively sandy-yellow-brownish all over; but the Leopard, he was the ‘sclusivest sandiest-yellowish-brownest of them all—a greyish-yellowish catty-shaped kind of beast, and he matched the ‘sclusively yellowish-greyish-brownish colour of the High Veldt to one hair.

This was very bad for the Giraffe and the Zebra and the rest of them; for he would lie down by a ‘sclusively yellowish-greyish-brownish stone or clump of grass, and when the Giraffe or the Zebra or the Eland or the Koodoo or the Bush-Buck or the Bonte-Buck came by he would surprise them out of their jumpsome lives. He would indeed! And, also, there was an Ethiopian with bows and arrows (a ‘sclusively greyish-brownish-yellowish man he was then), who lived on the High Veldt with the Leopard; and the two used to hunt together—the Ethiopian with his bows and arrows, and the Leopard ‘sclusively with his teeth and claws—till the Giraffe and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Quagga and all the rest of them didn’t know which way to jump, Best Beloved. They didn’t indeed! After a long time—things lived for ever so long in those days—they learned to avoid anything that looked like a Leopard or an Ethiopian; and bit by bit—the Giraffe began it, because his legs were the longest—they went away from the High Veldt.

They scuttled for days and days and days till they came to a great forest, ‘sclusively full of trees and bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy-blatchy shadows, and there they hid: and after another long time, what with standing half in the shade and half out of it, and what with the slippery-slidy shadows of the trees falling on them, the Giraffe grew blotchy, and the Zebra grew stripy, and the Eland and the Koodoo grew darker, with little wavy grey lines on their backs like bark on a tree trunk; and so, though you could hear them and smell them, you could very seldom see them, and then only when you knew precisely where to look. They had a beautiful time in the ‘sclusively speckly-spickly shadows of the forest, while the Leopard and the Ethiopian ran about over the ‘sclusively greyish-yellowish-reddish High Veldt outside, wondering where all their breakfasts and their dinners and their teas had gone.

At last they were so hungry that they ate rats and beetles and rock-rabbits, the Leopard and the Ethiopian, and then they had the Big Tummy-ache, both together; and then they met Baviaan—the dog-headed, barking Baboon, who is Quite the Wisest Animal in All South Africa. Said Leopard to Baviaan (and it was a very hot day), ‘Where has all the game gone?’ And Baviaan winked. He knew. Said the Ethiopian to Baviaan, ‘Can you tell me the present habitat of the aboriginal Fauna?’ (That meant just the same thing, but the Ethiopian always used long words. He was a grown-up.) And Baviaan winked. He knew.

Then said Baviaan, ‘The game has gone into other spots; and my advice to you, Leopard, is to go into other spots as soon as you can.’ And the Ethiopian said, ‘That is all very fine, but I wish to know whither the aboriginal Fauna has migrated.’ Then said Baviaan, ‘The aboriginal Fauna has joined the aboriginal Flora because it was high time for a change; and my advice to you, Ethiopian, is to change as soon as you can.’ That puzzled the Leopard and the Ethiopian, but they set off to look for the aboriginal Flora, and presently, after ever so many days, they saw a great, high, tall forest full of tree trunks all ‘sclusively speckled and sprottled and spottled, dotted and splashed and slashed and hatched and cross-hatched with shadows. (Say that quickly aloud, and you will see how very shadowy the forest must have been.) ‘What is this,’ said the Leopard, ‘that is so ‘sclusively dark, and yet so full of little pieces of light?’ ‘I don’t know, said the Ethiopian, ‘but it ought to be the aboriginal Flora.

I can smell Giraffe, and I can hear Giraffe, but I can’t see Giraffe.’ ‘That’s curious,’ said the Leopard. ‘I suppose it is because we have just come in out of the sunshine. I can smell Zebra, and I can hear Zebra, but I can’t see Zebra.’ ‘Wait a bit, said the Ethiopian. ‘It’s a long time since we’ve hunted ‘em. Perhaps we’ve forgotten what they were like.’ ‘Fiddle!’ said the Leopard. ‘I remember them perfectly on the High Veldt, especially their marrow-bones. Giraffe is about seventeen feet high, of a ‘sclusively fulvous golden-yellow from head to heel; and Zebra is about four and a half feet high, of a ’sclusively grey-fawn colour from head to heel.’ ‘Umm, said the Ethiopian, looking into the speckly-spickly shadows of the aboriginal Flora-forest. ‘Then they ought to show up in this dark place like ripe bananas in a smokehouse.’ But they didn’t. The Leopard and the Ethiopian hunted all day; and though they could smell them and hear them, they never saw one of them.

‘For goodness’ sake,’ said the Leopard at tea-time, ‘let us wait till it gets dark. This daylight hunting is a perfect scandal.’ So they waited till dark, and then the Leopard heard something breathing sniffily in the starlight that fell all stripy through the branches, and he jumped at the noise, and it smelt like Zebra, and it felt like Zebra, and when he knocked it down it kicked like Zebra, but he couldn’t see it. So he said, ‘Be quiet, O you person without any form. I am going to sit on your head till morning, because there is something about you that I don’t understand.’ Presently he heard a grunt and a crash and a scramble, and the Ethiopian called out, ‘I’ve caught a thing that I can’t see. It smells like Giraffe, and it kicks like Giraffe, but it hasn’t any form.’ ‘Don’t you trust it,’ said the Leopard. ‘Sit on its head till the morning—same as me.

They haven’t any form—any of ‘em.’ So they sat down on them hard till bright morning-time, and then Leopard said, ‘What have you at your end of the table, Brother?’ The Ethiopian scratched his head and said, ‘It ought to be ‘sclusively a rich fulvous orange-tawny from head to heel, and it ought to be Giraffe; but it is covered all over with chestnut blotches. What have you at your end of the table, Brother?’ And the Leopard scratched his head and said, ‘It ought to be ‘sclusively a delicate greyish-fawn, and it ought to be Zebra; but it is covered all over with black and purple stripes. What in the world have you been doing to yourself, Zebra? Don’t you know that if you were on the High Veldt I could see you ten miles off? You haven’t any form.’ ‘Yes,’ said the Zebra, ‘but this isn’t the High Veldt. Can’t you see?’ ‘I can now,’ said the Leopard. ‘But I couldn’t all yesterday. How is it done?’ ‘Let us up,’ said the Zebra, ‘and we will show you.

They let the Zebra and the Giraffe get up; and Zebra moved away to some little thorn-bushes where the sunlight fell all stripy, and Giraffe moved off to some tallish trees where the shadows fell all blotchy. ‘Now watch,’ said the Zebra and the Giraffe. ‘This is the way it’s done. One—two—three! And where’s your breakfast?’ Leopard stared, and Ethiopian stared, but all they could see were stripy shadows and blotched shadows in the forest, but never a sign of Zebra and Giraffe. They had just walked off and hidden themselves in the shadowy forest. ‘Hi! Hi!’ said the Ethiopian. ‘That’s a trick worth learning. Take a lesson by it, Leopard. You show up in this dark place like a bar of soap in a coal-scuttle.’ ‘Ho! Ho!’ said the Leopard. ‘Would it surprise you very much to know that you show up in this dark place like a mustard-plaster on a sack of coals?’ ‘Well, calling names won’t catch dinner, said the Ethiopian. ‘The long and the little of it is that we don’t match our backgrounds.

I’m going to take Baviaan’s advice. He told me I ought to change; and as I’ve nothing to change except my skin I’m going to change that.’ ‘What to?’ said the Leopard, tremendously excited. ‘To a nice working blackish-brownish colour, with a little purple in it, and touches of slaty-blue. It will be the very thing for hiding in hollows and behind trees.’ So he changed his skin then and there, and the Leopard was more excited than ever; he had never seen a man change his skin before. ‘But what about me?’ he said, when the Ethiopian had worked his last little finger into his fine new black skin. ‘You take Baviaan’s advice too. He told you to go into spots.’ ‘So I did,’ said the Leopard. I went into other spots as fast as I could. I went into this spot with you, and a lot of good it has done me.’ ‘Oh,’ said the Ethiopian, ‘Baviaan didn’t mean spots in South Africa. He meant spots on your skin.’ ‘What’s the use of that?’ said the Leopard. ‘Think of Giraffe,’ said the Ethiopian.

‘Or if you prefer stripes, think of Zebra. They find their spots and stripes give them per-fect satisfaction.’ ‘Umm,’ said the Leopard. ‘I wouldn’t look like Zebra—not for ever so.’ ‘Well, make up your mind,’ said the Ethiopian, ‘because I’d hate to go hunting without you, but I must if you insist on looking like a sun-flower against a tarred fence.’ ‘I’ll take spots, then,’ said the Leopard; ‘but don’t make ‘em too vulgar-big. I wouldn’t look like Giraffe—not for ever so.’ ‘I’ll make ‘em with the tips of my fingers,’ said the Ethiopian. ‘There’s plenty of black left on my skin still. Stand over!’ Then the Ethiopian put his five fingers close together (there was plenty of black left on his new skin still) and pressed them all over the Leopard, and wherever the five fingers touched they left five little black marks, all close together. You can see them on any Leopard’s skin you like, Best Beloved.

Sometimes the fingers slipped and the marks got a little blurred; but if you look closely at any Leopard now you will see that there are always five spots—off five fat black finger-tips. ‘Now you are a beauty!’ said the Ethiopian. ‘You can lie out on the bare ground and look like a heap of pebbles. You can lie out on the naked rocks and look like a piece of pudding-stone. You can lie out on a leafy branch and look like sunshine sifting through the leaves; and you can lie right across the centre of a path and look like nothing in particular. Think of that and purr!’ ‘But if I’m all this,’ said the Leopard, ‘why didn’t you go spotty too?’ ‘Oh, plain black’s best for me,’ said the Ethiopian. ‘Now come along and we’ll see if we can’t get even with Mr. One-Two- Three-Where’s-your-Breakfast!’ So they went away and lived happily ever afterward, Best Beloved. That is all.

Oh, now and then you will hear grown-ups say, ‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots?’ I don’t think even grown-ups would keep on saying such a silly thing if the Leopard and the Ethiopian hadn’t done it once—do you? But they will never do it again, Best Beloved. They are quite contented as they are. How The Leopard Got His Spots (poem) How The Leopard Got His Spots (poem) by Rudyard Kipling This poem is featured in Kipling's Just So Stories I am the Most Wise Baviaan, saying in Most wise tones, "Let us melt into the landscape, just us two by our lones." Peoplehavecome, inacarriage, calling. But Mummy is there.... Yes, I can go if you take me Nurse says she don't care. Let's go up to the pig-styes and sit on the farmyard rails! Let's say things to the bunnies, and watch 'em skitter their tails! Let's'-oh, anything, daddy, so long as it's you and me, And going truly exploring, and not being in till tea!

Here's your boots (I've brought 'em), and here's your cap and stick, And here's your pipe and tobacco. Oh, come along out of it, quick! Enjoy Kipling's How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin . Many of Kipling's Just So Stories are often read in grades 2-3. 0 Create a library and add your favorite stories. Get started by clicking the "Add" button. Add How The Leopard Got His Spots (poem) to your own personal library. Add How The Leopard Got His Spots (poem) to your own personal library. How the Leopard Got His Spots: The Graphic Novel (Graphic Spin): Sean Tulien, Rudyard Kipling, Pedro Rodriguez: 9781434238818: Amazon.com: Books Editorial Reviews About the Author Sean Tulien works as a children’s book editor in Minnesota. In his free time, Sean likes to read, eat sushi, exercise outdoors, listen to loud music, play with his quirky bunny, Habibi, and his curious hamster, Buddy, and spend time with his brilliant wife, Nicolle.

When he’s not doing all that stuff, Sean loves to writes books like this one. Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India, on December 30, 1865. He is best known for his short story collections The Jungle Book, published in 1894, and Just So Stories, published in 1902. He wrote a variety of other short stories, including 'Kim' and 'The Man Who Would Be King,' and many poems. In 1907, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first English-language writer and youngest person to win the award. On January 18, 1936, he died in London at age 70. How the Leopard Got His spots by Rudyard Kipling Literature Network ï¿½ Rudyard Kipling » How the Leopard Got His spots How the Leopard Got His spots IN the days when everybody started fair, Best Beloved, the Leopard lived in a place called the High Veldt.

'Member it wasn't the Low Veldt, or the Bush Veldt, or the Sour Veldt, but the 'sclusively bare, hot, shiny High Veldt, where there was sand and sandy-coloured rock and 'sclusively tufts of sandy- yellowish grass. The Giraffe and the Zebra and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Hartebeest lived there; and they were 'sclusively sandy-yellow-brownish all over; but the Leopard, he was the 'sclusivest sandiest-yellowish-brownest of them all--a greyish-yellowish catty-shaped kind of beast, and he matched the 'sclusively yellowish-greyish-brownish colour of the High Veldt to one hair. This was very bad for the Giraffe and the Zebra and the rest of them; for he would lie down by a 'sclusively yellowish-greyish-brownish stone or clump of grass, and when the Giraffe or the Zebra or the Eland or the Koodoo or the Bush-Buck or the Bonte-Buck came by he would surprise them out of their jumpsome lives. He would indeed!

And, also, there was an Ethiopian with bows and arrows (a 'sclusively greyish-brownish-yellowish man he was then), who lived on the High Veldt with the Leopard; and the two used to hunt together--the Ethiopian with his bows and arrows, and the Leopard 'sclusively with his teeth and claws--till the Giraffe and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Quagga and all the rest of them didn't know which way to jump, Best Beloved. They didn't indeed! After a long time--things lived for ever so long in those days--they learned to avoid anything that looked like a Leopard or an Ethiopian; and bit by bit--the Giraffe began it, because his legs were the longest--they went away from the High Veldt.

They scuttled for days and days and days till they came to a great forest, 'sclusively full of trees and bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy-blatchy shadows, and there they hid: and after another long time, what with standing half in the shade and half out of it, and what with the slippery-slidy shadows of the trees falling on them, the Giraffe grew blotchy, and the Zebra grew stripy, and the Eland and the Koodoo grew darker, with little wavy grey lines on their backs like bark on a tree trunk; and so, though you could hear them and smell them, you could very seldom see them, and then only when you knew precisely where to look. They had a beautiful time in the 'sclusively speckly-spickly shadows of the forest, while the Leopard and the Ethiopian ran about over the 'sclusively greyish-yellowish-reddish High Veldt outside, wondering where all their breakfasts and their dinners and their teas had gone.

At last they were so hungry that they ate rats and beetles and rock-rabbits, the Leopard and the Ethiopian, and then they had the Big Tummy-ache, both together; and then they met Baviaan--the dog-headed, barking Baboon, who is Quite the Wisest Animal in All South Africa. Said Leopard to Baviaan (and it was a very hot day), 'Where has all the game gone?' And Baviaan winked. He knew. Said the Ethiopian to Baviaan, 'Can you tell me the present habitat of the aboriginal Fauna?' (That meant just the same thing, but the Ethiopian always used long words. He was a grown-up.) And Baviaan winked. He knew.

Then said Baviaan, 'The game has gone into other spots; and my advice to you, Leopard, is to go into other spots as soon as you can.' And the Ethiopian said, 'That is all very fine, but I wish to know whither the aboriginal Fauna has migrated.' Then said Baviaan, 'The aboriginal Fauna has joined the aboriginal Flora because it was high time for a change; and my advice to you, Ethiopian, is to change as soon as you can.' That puzzled the Leopard and the Ethiopian, but they set off to look for the aboriginal Flora, and presently, after ever so many days, they saw a great, high, tall forest full of tree trunks all 'sclusively speckled and sprottled and spottled, dotted and splashed and slashed and hatched and cross-hatched with shadows. (Say that quickly aloud, and you will see how very shadowy the forest must have been.) 'What is this,' said the Leopard, 'that is so 'sclusively dark, and yet so full of little pieces of light?' 'I don't know, said the Ethiopian, 'but it ought to be the aboriginal Flora.

I can smell Giraffe, and I can hear Giraffe, but I can't see Giraffe.' 'That's curious,' said the Leopard. 'I suppose it is because we have just come in out of the sunshine. I can smell Zebra, and I can hear Zebra, but I can't see Zebra.' 'Wait a bit, said the Ethiopian. 'It's a long time since we've hunted 'em. Perhaps we've forgotten what they were like.' 'Fiddle!' said the Leopard. 'I remember them perfectly on the High Veldt, especially their marrow-bones. Giraffe is about seventeen feet high, of a 'sclusively fulvous golden-yellow from head to heel; and Zebra is about four and a half feet high, of a'sclusively grey-fawn colour from head to heel.' 'Umm, said the Ethiopian, looking into the speckly-spickly shadows of the aboriginal Flora-forest. 'Then they ought to show up in this dark place like ripe bananas in a smokehouse.' But they didn't. The Leopard and the Ethiopian hunted all day; and though they could smell them and hear them, they never saw one of them.

'For goodness' sake,' said the Leopard at tea-time, 'let us wait till it gets dark. This daylight hunting is a perfect scandal.' So they waited till dark, and then the Leopard heard something breathing sniffily in the starlight that fell all stripy through the branches, and he jumped at the noise, and it smelt like Zebra, and it felt like Zebra, and when he knocked it down it kicked like Zebra, but he couldn't see it. So he said, 'Be quiet, O you person without any form. I am going to sit on your head till morning, because there is something about you that I don't understand.' Presently he heard a grunt and a crash and a scramble, and the Ethiopian called out, 'I've caught a thing that I can't see. It smells like Giraffe, and it kicks like Giraffe, but it hasn't any form.' 'Don't you trust it,' said the Leopard. 'Sit on its head till the morning--same as me.

They haven't any form--any of 'em.' So they sat down on them hard till bright morning-time, and then Leopard said, 'What have you at your end of the table, Brother?' The Ethiopian scratched his head and said, 'It ought to be 'sclusively a rich fulvous orange-tawny from head to heel, and it ought to be Giraffe; but it is covered all over with chestnut blotches. What have you at your end of the table, Brother?' And the Leopard scratched his head and said, 'It ought to be 'sclusively a delicate greyish-fawn, and it ought to be Zebra; but it is covered all over with black and purple stripes. What in the world have you been doing to yourself, Zebra? Don't you know that if you were on the High Veldt I could see you ten miles off? You haven't any form.' 'Yes,' said the Zebra, 'but this isn't the High Veldt. Can't you see?' 'I can now,' said the Leopard. 'But I couldn't all yesterday. How is it done?' 'Let us up,' said the Zebra, 'and we will show you.

They let the Zebra and the Giraffe get up; and Zebra moved away to some little thorn-bushes where the sunlight fell all stripy, and Giraffe moved off to some tallish trees where the shadows fell all blotchy. 'Now watch,' said the Zebra and the Giraffe. 'This is the way it's done. One--two--three! And where's your breakfast?' Leopard stared, and Ethiopian stared, but all they could see were stripy shadows and blotched shadows in the forest, but never a sign of Zebra and Giraffe. They had just walked off and hidden themselves in the shadowy forest. 'Hi! Hi!' said the Ethiopian. 'That's a trick worth learning. Take a lesson by it, Leopard. You show up in this dark place like a bar of soap in a coal-scuttle.' 'Ho! Ho!' said the Leopard. 'Would it surprise you very much to know that you show up in this dark place like a mustard-plaster on a sack of coals?' 'Well, calling names won't catch dinner, said the Ethiopian. 'The long and the little of it is that we don't match our backgrounds.

I'm going to take Baviaan's advice. He told me I ought to change; and as I've nothing to change except my skin I'm going to change that.' 'What to?' said the Leopard, tremendously excited. 'To a nice working blackish-brownish colour, with a little purple in it, and touches of slaty-blue. It will be the very thing for hiding in hollows and behind trees.' So he changed his skin then and there, and the Leopard was more excited than ever; he had never seen a man change his skin before. 'But what about me?' he said, when the Ethiopian had worked his last little finger into his fine new black skin. 'You take Baviaan's advice too. He told you to go into spots.' 'So I did,' said the Leopard. I went into other spots as fast as I could. I went into this spot with you, and a lot of good it has done me.' 'Oh,' said the Ethiopian, 'Baviaan didn't mean spots in South Africa. He meant spots on your skin.' 'What's the use of that?' said the Leopard. 'Think of Giraffe,' said the Ethiopian.

'Or if you prefer stripes, think of Zebra. They find their spots and stripes give them per-feet satisfaction.' 'Umm,' said the Leopard. 'I wouldn't look like Zebra--not for ever so.' 'Well, make up your mind,' said the Ethiopian, 'because I'd hate to go hunting without you, but I must if you insist on looking like a sun-flower against a tarred fence.' 'I'll take spots, then,' said the Leopard; 'but don't make 'em too vulgar-big. I wouldn't look like Giraffe--not for ever so.' 'I'll make 'em with the tips of my fingers,' said the Ethiopian. 'There's plenty of black left on my skin still. Stand over!' Then the Ethiopian put his five fingers close together (there was plenty of black left on his new skin still) and pressed them all over the Leopard, and wherever the five fingers touched they left five little black marks, all close together. You can see them on any Leopard's skin you like, Best Beloved.

Sometimes the fingers slipped and the marks got a little blurred; but if you look closely at any Leopard now you will see that there are always five spots--off five fat black finger-tips. 'Now you are a beauty!' said the Ethiopian. 'You can lie out on the bare ground and look like a heap of pebbles. You can lie out on the naked rocks and look like a piece of pudding-stone. You can lie out on a leafy branch and look like sunshine sifting through the leaves; and you can lie right across the centre of a path and look like nothing in particular. Think of that and purr!' 'But if I'm all this,' said the Leopard, 'why didn't you go spotty too?' 'Oh, plain black's best for a nigger,' said the Ethiopian. 'Now come along and we'll see if we can't get even with Mr. One-Two- Three-Where's-your-Breakfast!' So they went away and lived happily ever afterward, Best Beloved. That is all.

Oh, now and then you will hear grown-ups say, 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots?' I don't think even grown-ups would keep on saying such a silly thing if the Leopard and the Ethiopian hadn't done it once--do you? But they will never do it again, Best Beloved. They are quite contented as they are. I AM the Most Wise Baviaan, saying in most wise tones, 'Let us melt into the landscape--just us two by our lones.' People have come--in a carriage--calling. But Mummy is there.... Yes, I can go if you take me--Nurse says she don't care. Let's go up to the pig-sties and sit on the farmyard rails! Let's say things to the bunnies, and watch 'em skitter their tails! Let's--oh, anything, daddy, so long as it's you and me, And going truly exploring, and not being in till tea! Here's your boots (I've brought 'em), and here's your cap and stick, And here's your pipe and tobacco. Oh, come along out of it --quick.

Rudyard Kipling Archives - Storynory Storynory Storynory Section: Page 1 Rudyard Kipling Kipling wrote some of the best animal stories for children, including his Jungle Books and Just So stories. His language is rich, inventive, and sonorous. The Cat that Walked by Himself Kipling’s story, set when people still lived in caves: a clever woman makes a bargain with a clever cat – who will win out? Why cats are so independent and drink bowls of milk, while other animals earn their place by the fire. >> Storynory Ltd, 26 Star Street, London UK. +44 (0) 7941 190 740. Main point of contact - bertie@storynory.com. Audio and texts are Copyright Storynory Ltd unless otherwise stated. Images are copyrighted to their owners. Many images on this site are licenced from Shutterstock. Our Terms and Conditions make it easy for schools to use our materials for free, please see our Copywrite Page for details .

Where the leopard got his spots: House where Rudyard Kipling wrote his Just So Stories goes on sale for £1.6million | Daily Mail Online Next Where the leopard got his spots: House where Rudyard Kipling wrote his Just So Stories goes on sale for £1.6million Kipling rented the five-bedroom house in the centre of Rottingdean, near Brighton, East Sussex from 1897 to 1903 Moved in with his wife Carrie, daughters Josephine and Elsie, and son John to be near to his aunt - who lived next door Artist Sir Philip Burne-Jones painted the writer at work in the property's study in 1899 - a picture that now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery Several of Kipling's works, including Kim and Just So Stories written there The collection of children's stories were inspired by the bed-time tales he would tell his daughter while they lived at the property Four-storey home now on sale for £1.6 million

Question: Who wrote the children’s poem ‘How the Leopard Got His Spots’?
Answer: Rudyard Kipling